Graduate Student Survival/Success Guide - Tao Xietaoxie.cs.illinois.edu › advice ›...

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Graduate Student Survival/Success Guide

-with contributions from

http://www.phdcomics.com/

Tao Xie Department of Computer Science

North Carolina State University http://www.csc.ncsu.edu/faculty/xie/

Slides at http://people.engr.ncsu.edu/txie/advice/gradstudentsurvival.pdf

Essential Skills for (PhD) Researchers • is able to independently

– Assess • Others’ Work (e.g., conference PC members, journal reviewers) • Own Work

– Envision (e.g., per n years, research agenda) – Design (e.g., per paper/project)

• Problem • Solution

– Execute (e.g., time/risk/team management) • Implement • Evaluate

– Communicate • Written • Oral

Critical, Visionary, Creative, Strategic/Engineering, Logical… Skills

high-quality/impact research

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Recommended Reading

• The Ph.D. Grind - A Ph.D. Student Memoir by Philip Guo – http://www.pgbovine.net/PhD-memoir.htm

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PhD Program Checklist

• Find/convince an advisor to work with (early on)

• Work with your advisor to build impressive CV

and improve your skills (along the way)

• Find/conduct summer internships (along the summer way)

• Graduate and find/get your dream job

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What Advisor to Look For • Someone with similar/compatible interests as

yours

http://www.phdcomics.com/comics/archive/phd012108s.gif

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What Advisor to Look For • Someone with similar/compatible interests as

yours • Renowned researchers

– “They will document their work in articles, published in respected journals[/conferences]”

– “Grant support from major research foundations” – Con: “limited in the amount of attention they can

devote to you” • Beginning researchers

– “In the absence of substantial grant funding or a lengthy publication list, look for someone who has an active and growing research program.”

http://www.cyberbuzz.gatech.edu/sga/gsg/phdhints.html

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What Advisor to Look For (cont.)

• Someone you can respect – “Choosing or keeping an advisor primarily

because he or she is nice is a mistake. Sometimes nice people withhold frank evaluations of your knowledge, skills, and progress to avoid hurting your feelings. If you have an excellent advisor, your feelings toward your advisor might best be labeled as respect”

• Whom to avoid?

– See the URL below for more

http://www.cyberbuzz.gatech.edu/sga/gsg/phdhints.html

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Pitfalls(?)

• I have TA supports for 1/2/3 years now, why bother finding an advisor now?

• For now, since I have 1/2/3 year TA support, I want to work with a professor who is nice to me and doesn’t push me to get research results or doesn’t care much whether I get research results

Act NOW

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Pitfall(?): Too Busy With Courses; No Time for Research Now


'Grades don't matter'

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What Advisor Looks For

• Right/good motivation – Not just “I need to graduate within 3 years from now”

w.r.t. agree to advise or RA support


'What do you want to be?'

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What Advisor Looks For

• Right/good motivation – Not just “I need to graduate within 3 years from now”

• Good specific important skills (for the research)

– Problem-solving/research-development skills – Programming skills (for tool-building/system

research) – Mathematical/theorectical skills (for theory research) – …


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What Advisor Looks For (cont.)

• Willing to work hard w.r.t. agree to advise or RA support

http://www.phdcomics.com/comics/archive/phd1029.gif

'Why are we doing this?'

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• Follow research guidance (not in a blindly sense)



'The evolution of Yes'

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• Normally a trial period (1 semester~n years) before committing to advise or RA support



'Brain on a stick'

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What Next?

• If a professor agrees to – try you out – advise you or – advise you + support you as RA

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Do and Publish High-Impact/Quality Research!

'Your Impact Factor'

Top conference/journal papers weigh much more


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But How?

An important factor is know how to work with your advisor

And first you need to know your advisor

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Advisor has MUCH more Tasks to do (and is Efficient in Tasks)


'Average time spent writing one e-mail'

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Advisor’s Time is MUCH more Expensive


'Academic Salaries'

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Appreciate the time that advisor allocates for you

Be prepared before meeting advisor But be proactive in requesting advisor’s time

allocated for you

21 http://www.phdcomics.com/comics/archive/phd050609s.gif

'Did you get it?'

AND be Responsive to Advisor’s Email

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Advisor Can be Hands-Off


'An impending sense of doom'

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Find the RIGHT level of abstractions to convey your work

details to advisor • If advisor doesn’t know what is going on, YOU

suffer in the end • Not necessarily the lower level of details, the

better – Remember advisor is busy; likely no time to

understand the messy details • Solution 1: acceptance tests in contrast to

walking advisor through your tool code base


Solution 2: Send Formal Writing (in Paper Draft) to Your Advisor

Don’t rely (only) on informal writing or oral conversion! Often the time, students are not good oral communicators

'What your Prof. read'

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Of course you need to know what your advisor may likely do to

you …

Keep in mind that Miscommunication between advisor and student may be the most common factor for causing damage to research development

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Advisor can be Pushy on Working Time


'Regular Working Hours'

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Advisor can be Pushy on Working Time –cont.


'Nights and weekends'

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Advisor can be Pushy on Your Passion to Research


'Outside interests'

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But More Often Advisor Looks For Concrete Deliverables

(Results/Artifacts)


'Brain on a stick'

• papers • tools • experimental results • new ideas • …

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Simply put, how your advisor feels about you if you don’t deliver (enough)

But Concrete Deliverables don’t come often enough, then advisor also looks for process evidence or anything else to assess a student to decide – Whether to advise a student after trial period – Whether to continue to advise a student – Whether to continue RA support

• Has the student worked hard enough? • Are the student’s skills good enough to deserve investment? • Any other factors causing the issue?

In advisor’s mind:

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Which Factor Advisor Bets on?

'The grandeur of his vision' http://www.phdcomics.com/comics/archive/phd030508s.gif

• Has the student worked hard enough? • Are the student’s skills good enough to deserve investment? • Any other factors causing the issue? (too ambitious goal or the problem/task is uncertain to succeed, health, family, …)

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Solution: deliver incrementally partial deliverables;

make your work details transparent to advisor

(avoid miscommunication)

But Concrete Deliverables don’t come often enough, then advisor also looks for process evidence or anything else to assess a student to decide – Whether to advise a student after trial period – Whether to continue to advise a student – Whether to continue RA support

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Be Realistic, Candid, and Transparent Don’t Over-promise

http://www.phdcomics.com/comics/archive/phd092107s.gif 'Doing the impossible'

But don’t intentionally pad your schedule to budget more than enough time for given tasks (not bargaining here) But if indeed your skills are not up to expectation, you need to work harder than others to make your deliverables up to expectation

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Advisor doesn’t Like (Just) Hearing Problems after Problems

'Problems' http://www.phdcomics.com/comics/archive/phd041107s.gif • Be proactive to propose possible solutions rather than just say passively “I faced this problem and I cannot move on; what next?” • Be proactive to provide insights rather than staying on the problem surface (provide right levels of details for advisor to understand and give advice)

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Anti-Patterns on “Problem-Facing” Students

• Short-sightedlhy follow what advisor asks to do (e.g., implementing a particular feature) without knowing the goal/point of doing so – E.g., not knowing what “good” or “bad” results of the

approach/tool would look like • Doesn’t understand research contributions or

questions investigated by tool or experiment; therefore, doesn’t dare/know to do workaround to address the problem – E.g., not knowing what is (not) important

• Lack good debugging or problem-solving skills

Need communicate well to advisor for getting guidance


How long your Prof. thinks it should take to do something'

Hard!: Is Advisor Too Ambitious or Student not Good Enough?

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After All, Need to Show Concrete (even Partial) Deliverables


'Meeting of the minds'

Work hard and smart (strategically)


Bottom Line is not Cause Advisor “Don’t Care”

'Some helpful advice'

Bad sign: advisor doesn’t push you or care even when you don’t deliver likely soon advisor won’t work with you


Driving Force should Come from You, Not (Just) Advisor

'Summer days...'

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Make Sure You Make Progress

http://www.phdcomics.com/comics/archive/phd0227.gif

'Grad student etiquette'

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(Don’t) Feel Going Down Over Years


'Your Life Ambition'

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Not Spend Your Day Like


'Why? Why??'

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Writing, Writing, Writing

• Many students (esp. international students) have poor writing skills – Pitfall: rely on advisor to write or rewrite, not

learning how to write better

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Writing Skills are Important to Your Career Goals



'Draft approved!'

If Your are Lucky, when Preparing Your Submission (write early!) …


'Needs work'

If not Lucky, (Don’t Expect Your Advisor’s Only Task is Just Working

with You) …

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Maybe the most important question: When is a student ready to get a

MS/PhD?

My personal interpretation • MS: independent research developer • PhD: independent research developer, thinker,

and architect Startup as Analogy

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After ALL, Most Importantly Keep Good Physical and Mental Health

'Sleep' http://www.phdcomics.com/comics/archive/phd100308s.gif

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More Resources

• Research Skills – http://people.engr.ncsu.edu/txie/advice/researchskills.pdf

http://people.engr.ncsu.edu/txie/advice/

Graduate Student Survival/Success Guide��-with contributions from http://www.phdcomics.com/Essential Skills for (PhD) ResearchersRecommended ReadingPhD Program ChecklistWhat Advisor to Look ForWhat Advisor to Look ForWhat Advisor to Look For (cont.)Pitfalls(?)Pitfall(?): Too Busy With Courses; No Time for Research NowWhat Advisor Looks ForWhat Advisor Looks ForWhat Advisor Looks For (cont.)What Advisor Looks For (cont.)What Advisor Looks For (cont.)What Next?Do and Publish High-Impact/Quality Research!But How?Advisor has MUCH more Tasks to do (and is Efficient in Tasks)Advisor’s Time is MUCH more ExpensiveAppreciate the time that advisor allocates for youAND be Responsive to Advisor’s EmailAdvisor Can be Hands-OffFind the RIGHT level of abstractions to convey your work details to advisorSolution 2: Send Formal Writing (in Paper Draft) to Your AdvisorOf course you need to know�what your advisor may likely do to you … Advisor can be Pushy on Working TimeAdvisor can be Pushy on Working Time –cont.Advisor can be Pushy on Your Passion to ResearchBut More Often Advisor Looks For Concrete Deliverables (Results/Artifacts) Simply put, how your advisor feels about you if you don’t deliver (enough)�Which Factor Advisor Bets on?Solution: �deliver incrementally �partial deliverables;�make your work details transparent to advisor �(avoid miscommunication)Be Realistic, Candid, and Transparent�Don’t Over-promiseAdvisor doesn’t Like (Just) Hearing Problems after ProblemsAnti-Patterns on “Problem-Facing” StudentsHard!: Is Advisor Too Ambitious or Student not Good Enough?After All, Need to Show Concrete (even Partial) DeliverablesBottom Line is not Cause Advisor “Don’t Care”Driving Force should Come from You, Not (Just) AdvisorMake Sure You Make Progress(Don’t) Feel Going Down Over YearsNot Spend Your Day LikeWriting, Writing, WritingWriting Skills are Important to Your Career GoalsIf Your are Lucky, when Preparing Your Submission (write early!) …If not Lucky, (Don’t Expect Your Advisor’s Only Task is Just Working with You) …Maybe the most important question:�When is a student ready to get a MS/PhD?After ALL, Most Importantly�Keep Good Physical and Mental HealthMore Resources

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